About Michael Nagy & Raise Your Spirits

Michael has been working in the bar and restaurant industry since 2000 as a head mixologist, liquid bar chef, spirits sommelier, bar manager, bar consultant, and cocktail expert. He holds an Advanced Certification in Mixology Bartending from the Professional Bartending Schools of America and is a former advanced mixology instructor at a prominent national bartending school. He has worked with many local bars and restaurants on developing cocktail menus, improving visibility, and customer service training. His cocktail book "The Cocktail Rediscovered" was released in 2007 and he currently runs a bar and cocktail website/blog here called “Tails from the Barstool”.

Michael is Owner & Operator of “Raise Your Spirits”, an elite bartending, top-shelf cocktail and beverage service, and bar consultation service in Central Pennsylvania since 2013. He has created seasonal cocktail menus for martini bars and cocktail lounges as well as for event venues, individuals, and businesses. He holds a B.S. Degree in Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh and has Master's credits in Education and Community Psychology. Michael has been writing for Chilled Magazine for over 2 years, other trade publications, and is currently contributing to "The Culture Trip", a travel, lifestyle, and culture site based in L.A. and Epicurious as a community writer. He can be followed on his site here, on Twitter @mixitup42, and Facebook at facebook.com/tailsfromthebarstool.com.

"My wife and I hired Michael and Raise Your Spirits to be the bartenders at our Wedding Reception in July of 2015. Michael was absolutely fantastic to work with. After coordinating the basic details via email, he met with us in person for several hours to finalize what alcohol we wanted to have served. He had an excellent list of recommendations for signature cocktails for us to choose from (he would have been willing to make a custom drink as well, but we liked the ones on his list better). Mike then provided us with a comprehensive shopping list for the alcohol and mixers. When I went shopping, I found some brands of wine other than the ones that he had recommended happened to be on sale. Mike was very responsive to my phone calls to provide feedback on which of the on sale wines were or were not ok to get without sacrificing quality.

A few weeks before our wedding Raise Your Spirits worked at another wedding at our same venue. He ran into some venue-specific issues at that wedding and the next week contacted us to talk thru them so that we were able to avoid those same issues at our wedding.

On the day of the wedding itself Mike arrived in plenty of time (before we or any of our guests got there) and had everything set up and ready to go. He was courteous, professional and extremely competent the entire evening. He even brought an extra staff member beyond what we had discussed just to make sure that we would have no issues! At the end of the wedding the bar area was completely cleaned up with no work left for our bridal party to do (other than pick up the left-over beer and wine, which he had nicely stacked for us).

Working with Mike & Raise Your Spirits was easy and a true pleasure in the midst of the hectic-ness of planning a wedding. I would recommend him to anyone who needs bar tending services without hesitation. " ~ Nate and Kelly (July 2015)

Latest Blog Entries

The Cocktail Rediscovered

Are you ready to take the 'bar' exam? This is the only tool you will need to raise the 'bar' for mixing drinks. Whether you are a novice bartender, who likes to play bartender at parties, or a professional bartender trying to perfect his/her craft in mixology, Learn More